How To Play Guitar

Topics

Understanding left-hand fingering in guitar tablature (or just tab) is not as hard as you might think. Most of the time, there won't be any notation in the tab to alert you to which fingers to use because[more…]

Alternate picking is the right-hand picking technique that uses both downstrokes (toward the floor) and upstrokes (toward the ceiling). When you learn how to play the guitar using alternate picking, you[more…]

After you’re familiar with the basic feel and movement of playing the major barre chords on a guitar, you want to learn how to play the minor barre chords. By learning to play the minor barre chords based[more…]

Once you've got a handle on forming major and minor barre chords on the guitar, it's time to add some more depth and variety to your playing. Dominant 7th chords have a sharper, more complex sound than[more…]

Minor 7th chords have a softer, more complex sound than straight minor chords do. To add this jazzier chord to your repertoire you need to learn how to play minor 7th chords based on E on the guitar. You[more…]

Once you've mastered playing A-based major barre chords on the guitar, you'll find learning A-based minor barre cords a breeze. You don't need to do the strange finger contortions for the minors that you[more…]

More than any other type of guitar articulation, the string bend is what makes your guitar talk (or sing or cry), giving the instrument almost voice-like expressive capabilities. Bending is nothing more[more…]

Think of the term vibrato, and you may imagine a singer’s wavering voice or a violinist’s twitching hand. On the guitar, however, vibrato is a steady and usually slight fluctuation of pitch, most often[more…]

To mute notes or chords on the guitar, you use your right or left hand to touch the strings and partially or completely deaden the sound. You can use muting both as an effect to create a thick, chunky[more…]

To sound authentic when you play classical guitar, you must play it in the classical style. That means you have to follow the specific rules about how you hold the guitar, position your hands, and play[more…]

To sound authentic when you play classical guitar, you must play it in the classical style. After posture, learning how to position your right-hand is the most critical consideration for achieving a true[more…]

Classical guitarists play their instruments quite differently from that of any other guitar style. When you're learning how to position your left hand for fingering frets in the classical style, try to[more…]

The major and minor scales may be music-education stalwarts, but they sound a bit academic when used over chord progressions. For rock guitar, you'll want to learn to play the pentatonic scale, which supplies[more…]

The pentatonic scale is the most common scale used for playing rock lead because it sounds great over every chord change in a key, and you can begin to make music with it almost immediately. There are[more…]

Chord-melody style, as its name implies, is a jazz guitar solo style that incorporates both the melody and harmony (chords) of a song. When you learn to play a chord-melody style, you can jazz up an existing[more…]

You can play a lot of guitar music by simply memorizing five major scale patterns, and the best way to memorize anything is to practice. The following practice exercises will help you to learn major scale[more…]

You can play a lot of music on guitar simply by memorizing five major scale patterns, and the best way to memorize anything is to practice. The following practice exercises will help you to learn major[more…]

You can play a lot of music on guitar simply by memorizing five major scale patterns and the best way to memorize anything is to practice. The following practice exercises will help you to learn major[more…]

You can play a lot of music on guitar simply by memorizing five major scale patterns, and the best way to memorize anything is to practice. The following guitar practice exercises will help you learn major[more…]

Top guitarists understand how to make their tone come alive by adding effects. It’s the reason why a professional guitarist's tone can sound different from an amateur's, even when they are playing the[more…]

Having difficulty at first in creating a barre F is normal (discouraging maybe, but normal). Learning how to fix common guitar barre chord problems can help you nail this vexing chord before you decide[more…]

More than any other type of guitar articulation, the string bend is what makes your guitar talk (or sing or cry), giving the instrument almost voice-like expressive capabilities. Bending is nothing more[more…]

An arpeggio is a chord whose notes are played one at a time instead of simultaneously. It’s sort of the exploded view of a chord. Playing major arpeggios on guitar prepares you for music with major chords[more…]

An arpeggio is a chord whose notes are played one at a time instead of simultaneously. It’s sort of the exploded view of a chord. Playing major arpeggios on guitar prepares you for music with major chords[more…]

An arpeggio is a chord whose notes are played one at a time instead of simultaneously. It’s sort of the exploded view of a chord. Playing major arpeggios on guitar prepares you for music with major chords[more…]